MedImmune is the newest member of the Human Vaccines Project, which will help to accelerate the research and development of vaccines and immunotherapies for infectious disease and cancer.

Incubated at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), the Human Vaccines Project is an ambitious new public-private partnership seeking to transform the future of global disease prevention and treatment by solving the primary scientific obstacles impeding the research and development of new vaccines and immunotherapies. Endorsed by 35 leading vaccine scientists, the Project brings together top academic research centers, and government, non-profit and industry research and development efforts into a global consortium.

MedImmune will help to establish the Project’s global consortium, launch its research programme and guide its scientific plan and future direction as a participant of the consortium and member of the Industrial Advisory Committee, a panel of leading industry partners that will advise the Project on its scientific plan and future direction.

“The human immune system is one of the most potent tools medicine has in the fight against disease,” said Ronald Herbst, Vice President, Oncology Research and Development, MedImmune. “We look forward to sharing our biologics expertise in immunology and infectious disease, while working with some of the key leaders in this area to help advance drug and vaccine development against a wide range of diseases.”

“Engagement with leading industry partners such as MedImmune is central to achieving the Project’s ultimate goal of revolutionizing vaccine and immunotherapy development to create a new paradigm for global disease prevention,” said Wayne C. Koff, IAVI Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of the Human Vaccines Project.

The Project’s mission is to accelerate the development of vaccines and immunotherapies against major global infectious diseases and cancers by decoding the human immune system. Its Human Immunome programme is an ambitious seven-to-10-year effort to sequence the adaptive components of the immune system across diverse populations to provide an indispensable “parts list” allowing for the design of highly targeted new vaccines/therapies.

Its Rules of Immunogenicity programme focuses on conducting large numbers of small, iterative human clinical research trials to probe the immune system to systematically solve the key problems impeding vaccine/immunotherapy development. Together, these programmes aim to dramatically transform the nature of vaccine and immunotherapy development, and thus disease prevention and treatment.

“Industrial partnerships in global research and development initiatives such as the Human Vaccines Project are essential prerequisites for success, and we welcome MedImmune to the rapidly growing number of partners in the Project’s global consortium,” said Ian Gust, Project Board member, Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne and a long-time leader in the field of vaccinology.